Wanna get away? Given the state of the world around us, I will assume the answer is yes, so let’s hop in the mental time machine for a moment and chart a course for exactly one year ago, to January 2020. If you are like me—or most people—that might as well be a journey back to the Carolingian Empire given how distant, remote, and fully unfamiliar it seems. “Wait, was that even a thing?” you might be asking. Indeed, it was, and it was just 12 short months ago that many of us were looking ahead to 2020 with growing optimism, enthusiasm, and energy.

Placing yourself back in that moment, you’ll recall that you were likely making plans for your life, your career, your family. You had goals and aspirations and timelines and, above all, a thoroughly convincing illusion of control over much of your existence. Then, as the saying goes, life came at us fast.